If I had a Million Dollars I would never have to stress about money again.
Oh, I’ve heard that so many times, often with different numbers but the basic idea that having a certain amount of money will make you financially secure is more often than not – a lie we are telling ourselves.
Because I often get to work with extremely successful people, at least in the material sense, I can tell you for sure that 9 times out of ten, having more money will not make you feel more financially secure.
And we all know people who do not necessarily have much but are simply not that worried about money.
Today we are going to talk about creating financial security, something I managed to get in a relatively young age – way before I owned several 7 to 8 figure businesses – and how you can do it too.
Lets go.
So what really creates the sense of financial security, and i’m not talking about delusion here im talking about real financial security.
The answer is that the only thing that creates that is the self aware understanding that my skills and abilities are worth much more than what I need to make a living.
When I was 17 I was working In a real estate office, delivering snail mail letters door to door on my skateboard. And one day I stopped in a hardware store to buy some oil to clean my skateboard wheels.
The person behind the desk asked me what I’m doing for a living and I told him I’m delivering letters but I’m also studying psychology and that I hope to one day start my own business – he gave me a fatherly worried face telling me I should go and get a real profession, something like becoming an electrician.
And even though looking back it’s kinda funny, and even though I obviously would never tell anyone to skip his dreams for financial security there is a core truth to what he was saying and the core truth is that when you have a skill that people will always need – you will alway have a way to provide for yourself or your family.
Today we will go over 6 more general skills you should probably adopt regardless of your passion or desired area of expertise – skills that will make you so much more valuable in anything you do.
But before that I wanna quote something that is 100% true and Important to understand – unfortunately I truly do not remember where I’ve heard, if you do know who said it first, please write it down in the comments as ill love to give him or her the credit.
The saying goes like this:
“You cannot out earn crazy”
Meaning that even if you make a lot of money if you spend more than you make and make yourself used to a lifestyle that requires spending so much more – you will be vulnerable and will not feel financially safe.
The way I go for it is that I always try to grow my income exponentially, while developing my lifestyle logarithmically.
So skill number 1 you should develop is differentiating wants and needs, and learning when enough is enough. Most people spend passionately and procrastinate their work.
learning to do the opposite, working and creating passionately while sometimes procrastinating our spending – will create a much better result both financially but more importantly on the way we feel.
And don’t get me wrong, I’m not against creating an amazing lifestyle or spending big bucks on toys – I’m all for it. It’s just that it has to be a small percentage of your income, otherwise the joy of having will be shadowed by being financially stressed.
If you will do that and develop the other 5 skills, I promise you you will make enough and save enough to have not just financial security but over a bit of a longer period also enough money to buy these toys stresslessly.
Skill number 2 is learning how to sprint, and i’m not talking about physically running but the way you work and operate, most people do not know how to powerfully sprint at their work or projects.
Starting a business, getting into a higher position job, making more money, developing a project – most of these things will demand a massive amount of work just to kick start, and most of this work won’t be high level strategic staff but day to day dirty work.
We must develop the willingness to put our head down, run through the walls and do whatever it takes – for a relatively short period of time to push through the starting barrier of almost everything worthwhile.
Think about working out for example – most people will never see the benefits of working out regularly because they will not go through the hard 2-4 weeks of muscle pain, workout mistakes, hunger, discomfort and all the rest of the difficulties of the start.
Then 2 years later they will try again but they will have to face the same thing again. People who work out regularly for years tend to forget how difficult it is to start because that really short period that is so difficult is so far away from them – but they experienced it as well.
And it’s exactly the same with business and almost anything else that is worthwhile.
Skill number 3 is learning to marathon, marathons, for most people, have very different pace than sprints, but they require patience.
Learning to keep on doing things when the progress seem slow is also a key to get to the next peak and next level. Sometimes you do not need to change anything to create a huge success but simply keep on doing what you are already doing for 2 or 3 more years.
Skill number 4 is not really a skill but a group of skills. We should all train our social skills.
Especially if you are like me, and I was a kid who was extremely shy and insecure so I did not really develop social skills until around 16 years old.
The bright side is that social skills like, better listening, asking questions, story telling, persuasion and leadership, public speaking and in today’s world speaking to the camera are relatively easy to learn – i took several courses both live and online and they made major changes for me.
Of course you should practice what you learn, otherwise it all stays theoretic.
The reason social skills are crucial for financial security is that all the money in the world is placed in the hands of people, and every single penny you get is because someone decided to give it to you.
If you want to master money – you must master people.
Skill number 5 managing yourself, time management, prioritization, project management as well as managing your emotions and moods are crucial to make sure our actions are focused around the right things and not managed by stress and distractions.
Functionality just like social skills these are also relatively easy to develop.
And the last one, skill number 6 is maybe not absolutely a must but simply a huge bonus and that’s learning to use technology. I personally know a man who owns and runs a successful printing business – who doesn’t know how to read or write.
I know, sounds weird but its true – and he is a beautiful soul.
But can you imagine how much harder it is for him to do it? He cannot even list all the orders he gets so its all in his head and obviously they often miss on jobs and get clients upset.
When im talking about using technology im not talking about deep computer programming or fixing your phones broken screen by yourself – just the basics of using systems.
In today’s world using technology is the new literacy and being technologically illiterate is just like old times illiteracy – not knowing how to read or write.
So, yeah, you can do it without it – but its going to be so much harder.
